Father: We are gathered here from many places and many backgrounds and many circumstances, but we are all united in the reality that in our natural condition, we are sinners and we are all deficient and fall short of your perfect standard of righteousness.  

We are astray of the glorious purpose for which you created us, we are corrupted in our nature and our desires: we do not love you, we do not want you, we do not pursue you—and could we genuinely want to approach you, we would not be able to, for how can mortal, finite, corrupted, and cast out humanity bridge the infinite gulf to lay hold of your being?  

Above all, we are condemned by your perfect justice. With our every breath and every desire, we affirm Adam and Eve’s original rebellion, we declare that your righteous standards have no hold on us, and we testify that your holy declaration of judgment on us is fully warranted to its utmost, eternal extent. 

And yet you have not left us to receive that which we are due. In your mercy, and out of your eternal grace, you provided Christ Jesus. In his humanity he lived the perfect life of obedience that we could not live, and in his innocent death he bore your infinite judgment on himself.  

We rejoice today for this good news—this Gospel. We celebrate that you have called us to turn from death to embrace life, and that in your sovereign power you enable us to do what you we cannot do ourselves: turn from self and sin and rest by faith in Christ. We marvel, holy Father, that in Christ, you not only save us, but you make us your children and heirs of your heavenly glory.  

We exult not only for how the Gospel takes away our condemnation and brings us into relationship with you, but we rejoice in your purpose to use us to spread the news of that Gospel to our families, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and total strangers—here in Lee’s Summit and beyond.  

As we have just sung, there is a task unfinished. As long as your mercy holds back the flood of your judgment, convict us that we have work to do—preaching the Gospel to our own hearts and to others, pointing to Christ, proclaiming your perfect reconciliation, and growing in obedience and rest in Christ in life, in trials, in hope. 

What you have begun, you will finish for your glory. Stir us up today to hear the Gospel, to obey the Gospel, and to labor faithfully in what your Gospel calls us to do. This we ask in eager anticipation, knowing that this is your will for us and in us. 

Amen